Why Google Chrome is a Bad Idea
*
Are you wondering “why Google is bad”? So do I! Now please choose one of the following:
- This post deals with the reasons why Google’s Chrome browser is a bad idea. Scroll to read the rest.
- To find out why Google search sucks read the post covering the search engine.
- For general criticism of Google consider reading why I banned Google on my blog.
- You can also look up my list of Google alternatives when you’re convinced that Google is bad for you.
The Short History of Browser Wars
Do you remember the browser wars? No, I don’t talk about Star Wars, the browser wars.
In the prehistoric era of the Web we had Netscape Navigators which guided us through the World Wide Wait.
Netscape 2, 3 and 4 were the dominant browsers back then. Then Microsoft made the situation more difficult by gaining market share.
Believe it or not but at a certain point the Internet Explorer was the best browser to use.
Netscape failed to fulfill both Internet users’ and web developers’ needs. Thus Netscape 6 (there never was a 5) was built from scratch.
Firefox is what came out of it in the end – it was a happy ending – but it was no ending at all!
Now Google goes to war again with a proprietary browser!
Google Chrome is a Bad Idea for Various Reasons
1. Proprietary: In case you think the Microsoft monopoly sucks don’t you think that a Google monopoly does suck as well? It might be open source but not truly free software.
Google Chrome won’t be another Firefox, you can bet. Google is the Microsoft of the Web. It won’t be friendly forever. Just ask the Chinese.
2. Privacy: Google knows almost everything about you:what you search (Google search), what messages you read (Gmail), what people visit a site (Google Analytics), what sites you visit
- Google toolbar
- lifetime Google cookies
- DoubleClick tracking cookies etc.
but there still are some unknowns, from time to time. With a Google browser you can’t hide anything anymore.
3. Ads: Firefox, Opera and even Internet Explorer come with either built in or easily added Google ad blockers. A Google browser is basically a Google Ads feeding machine.
4. Web Development: Web developers have a difficult enough job to fix websites for the 4 most popular browsers like IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera.
Do you think a Google browser will make it easier? Currently building websites often takes up less time already than tweaking them for different browsers.
5. Web Standards: Do you really expect Google and Microsoft to implement the same Web Standards?
No way, they attempt to push their own ways of interpreting them, both will differ. We’ll end up with web apps or even websites working just on one of them.
6. Firefox: The guy who built Firefox now works with Google or for both FF and Google. Do you really think this will go forever and Google will support its own free and non-profit open source competition?
7. Search: No other search engine will be able to succeed in future. Google will – just like Microsoft – bundle the browser with the search engine.
Any new search engine that comes up in future will face an insurmountable disadvantage: It won’t be able to gain market share without owning a browser.
What do you think? Are you eager to fight in the browser wars? Do you need more sequels?
Are You Joining the Dark Side?
Do you really think Microsoft is the dark side and Google is not? No matter how the empire is called. The emperor wields all the power.
In case you’re with the rebel forces use Firefox instead.
This new initiative raises a lot of questions. We won’t like some of the answers.
Personally I do not trust Google – like any other corporation – to own me and control my browsing habits.
Let’s hope the best and prepare for the worst by using Google-free open source software.
Editor’s note: this post has gone live and viral in 2008 when Google introduced Chrome. I’ve edited it ever since for better readability and changed the image. The gist is still the same despite minor tweaks and an added preface.
* Creative Commons image by Pascal.
Hello,
U have some good points, but those are not really reasons to not use the google browser. We don’t even know yet how its going to be, as its never been released yet.
1, only time will tell.
2, well i guess u need u need to read the term of usage really good than.
3, google comes with a great ad blocker, if a web page has ads it would stay in that tab. I don’t see any reason why google would turn this in to a ad feed machine.
4, google browser has been build on the webkit engine, so i highly doubt it will break the web of gives us another browser to debug for.. but than again. If u don’t like debugging why on earth do people become a developer…
5, webkit is a proven platform and follows the standards…
6, firefox and google’s browser is like comparing firefox with safari…
7, nobody gets forced to use the google browser. If u dont like google use a other?
I’ll more than happy to give this baby a spin tomorrow
V1: thanks for the feedback, but as to
#1 you have to be no prophet to know that profit oriented companies will secure their market share in this way.
#2 There is no way to protect yourself from Google data collection. Reading the small type won’t help much.
#3 Hello? Google makes 99% via Google ads. Is this reason enough? Or do you think they will shovel their own grave?
#4 Yeah, that’s why I do mostly SEO now ;-) This blog has even problems on different Firefox versions, it has bugs on FF3 on Linux and Mac I can’t find. Do you really think just because it’s a known engine it will work exactly the same everywhere? That’s naive.
#5 Yeah, but doesn’t work on Windows.
#6 Firefox will compete with Chrome whether you like or not.
#7 Developers have to use it, and once it gains a market share of 10% (it surely will) or more, like 20% and Microsoft has like 70% no search engine will be able to enter the market as browsers with search engines built in by default will be the only way to enter this market.
I think that Google Chrome is going to shuffle the deck of web browsing, looking at the comic seems to provide really interesting features. I also think that Google Chrome is about to eat market share more form FIrefox than for other borwser.
As a user I’m hoping that feature introduced by Google Chrome are going to be implemented in other browser, but I don’t think I’m going to be a Google Chrome user mostly because of privacy concerns.
I think you’re being a little paranoid about Chrome/Google but you’re free to have your own opinion. IT WILL be a pretty sick browser/OS… at least we can agree on that, right?
Agree with wisher. IE wont suffer FireFox will. Google is making a very selfish decision and I hope they fail in their efforts. The time and money would be better spent in support of webKit or Gecko engines
1) Google is open and will allow anyone to freely use their code aslong as they don’t resell it. They don’t have to submit bugs back to Google or send any updates they make to the code back to them either.
2) Chrome will be as private as every other browser on the market today, even more so than IE6 and 7.
3) What’s wrong with ads? They make the internet work. I see you have ads on this site.
4) I don’t see how this will be a problem. Sure there’s going to be differences but not to the same scale as IE 6 or 7. Not going to be anymore of problem than coding for Safari.
5) You’ll have to ask Microsoft but they’ve said they’re committed to web standards.
6) Well they’ve just signed a contract to 2011, so I don’t see why not.
7) If someone makes a better search engine people will use it.
I believe the ethics and practices of a company should dictate society’s trust in them. Large corporations are not inherently evil, and neither is a monopoly. The corporation has gotten a bad reputation because the last ten years or so the media has focused on ousting those who abuse it. If you follow Google’s track record, they are are mindful of community, their employees, and how to enhance and improve the way we work online with every new product. Your paranoia is justified by the trends of other companies, but you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and blanket all corporations with your paranoia or else you’ll simply have a miserable end user experience, and one that isn’t really open minded. I have my own skeptical thoughts about Chrome, but admittedly they’re more about the new memory management algorithms that are designed to make Chrome more efficient than other browsers.
1. For which reasons are you saying that Microsoft sucks? And why are you comparing it with Google? It has nothing to do with Google which, just like Apple, very often creates innovative solutions that are able to improve people lifes. Microsoft is not innovative. In any case, Chrome is going to be open source
2. It is not an excuse but… you think that Microsoft with IE, Apple with Safari, Opera etc… can’t do the same thing?
3. Wait before judging
4. You forgot to list Safari which far away more used by Opera. In any case Chrome uses the rendering engine of Webkit that is used in Android, Nokia, and other important browsers.
5. Browsers always have been like this, there is no way how to make websites look 100% pixel perfect on all of them. The standards exists to be used. And all software developers are making sure that they follow them, including Microsoft with the new IE8
6. it’s not a reason for which Chrome is a bad idea
7. all browsers, even the “microsoft monopoly sucks” now offer to the user the choice of choosing search engine. Unsurmontable disadvantage seems very tragick, in any case a search box in the interface of a browser can’t be the death for other search engines
There’s something deeper to learn about Google from this product than the initial reaction to the product features, however. Ignore for a moment the observations about Google leapfrogging their competitors with more user value and a new feature or two. Or Google diversifying away from search into other applications; they’ve been doing that for a while. Or the privacy red herring.
No, the story is about seemingly incremental features that are actually massively expensive for others to match, and the platform that Google is building which makes it cheaper and easier for them to develop and run web-scale applications than anyone else.
Pretty evil stuff :-)
lol
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onreact, in response to what you said to v1 (hope this doesn’t come across as hostile):
1. Very correct, google wants to own the web
2. You can opt out of google double click cookies at any time: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html – same goes for yahoo also
3. Its based on webkit so Id expect someone will come along with an extension to do this sooner or later to block ads.
4/5. Safari (aka webkit) has been available for windows for a long time (since June ’07). Google is based off of webkit so you can expect them to follow standards pretty closlely.
6. Last week google signed a contract with the mozilla foundation to continue support into 2011.
7. No one is forced to use googles products – also chrome gives you the option of changing what search engine you use when you run it the first time.
Also its available for download right now: http://www.google.com/chrome
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Proprietary not, open source under a very permissive license you will be able to modify and create your own browser
[…] do everything else right? The reviews are all over the place. The Good, Middle of the Road, and The Bad. Microsoft seems to be finally waking up on being standards compliant with their new beta. (IE6 is […]
I hear a bit of (probably) unnecessary hysteria in this article. Chrome will be disruptive, no doubt. But I don’t think the sky is falling, and there is good reason to believe the web-as-platform will move forward much faster than if Google hadn’t jumped into it. And yes, we need to watch to see how Google uses the browser to our detriment, if any. Open source can be messy, but it’s the best hope for the web to realize its potential.
I think you’re right about all 7 points, but I’m still going to download it and enjoy the heck out of it!
[…] hay quien ha encontrado siete razones por las que Google Chrome es una mala idea. (Cómo mola esto de hacer listados de […]
It was only a matter of time before Google launched a web browser. It is very hard to keep track of all the business that Google buys but you can bet that the web browser is only the beginning. Anyone want to take a guess on when we will see an OS from Google?
I don’t like corporations either, and I agree with Google being web version of Microsoft, but i differ in some things:
I don’t make moral evaluation of both Microsoft and Google. They are neither good nor bad, they just exists.
I don’t believe I live in some kind of cyberpunk world where software companies control my life. Ultimately I have the final decision on which technology I use.
Diversity and competition is always good in the market. Another browser in the sea is a good news.
[…] Tad was skeptical with 7 reasons why Chrome is a bad idea […]
Warning: incoming ranting.
1. we have 1 monopoly… at least with 2 big competitors we’re in a better situation then with just a single monopoly. The more vendors that enter this fray, the better. It’s unlikely that they’ll completely obliterate everyone.
2. Privacy: If you’re willing to sacrifice your privacy to use this browser, that’s your choice. Some users will not mind this issue. You might however but you can choose not to use an alternate browser. Who’s being forced?
3. Ads: So you’re advocating that people should STEAL a service from websites? Many websites provide a free service, IF you agree to view/display their advertising. Yeah, great one there… let’s promote destroying free services revenue streams so less websites make money or lose the ability to provide such free services at all.
4. Web Development: Web Developers have a difficult enough job to fix websites for the 4 most used existing browsers now IE7, IE6, Firefox, Opera. Do you think a Google browser and IE8 will make it easier? Currently building websites often takes up less time already than tweaking them for different browsers. Don’t even start with “information should be free” like I’ve heard from other areas… when hosting content and bandwidth are free… when the time people spend, collating, collecting, building and distributing are all free… when living itself is free… maybe then.
5. Web Standards: There are already competing standards and interpretations, yes. Recently there’ve been some interesting contests on who can implement the most of standards, who can implement them better, who can make them render faster and so on. Hopefully with another competitor we can see this trend continue. It’s worth noting that it uses the webKit rendering engine … which safari already uses. Nothing new to see here.
6. Firefox: They’ve contributed more to open source then either you I could ever hope to, how much must they continue to give as a corporation? Hard to criticise them when you see how much they’ve put into moz’ foundation and what have you.
7. Search: what the hell? If someone builds a better search engine, I’ll use it. Sure I’m not a representation of everyone but I think it’s fairly safe to say that there’s very little product loyalty these days with regards to websites. We use the latest and glossiest gadgets and whichever works best for our needs. Search can always be improved…
Anyway just my overly opinionated thoughts, I’ve played around with Chrome, seems swish but it will not replace FF3 as I have dev tools that I like to use that chrome doesn’t have.
More competition creates innovation. I welcome this browser… and think back to when IE stagnated the hell out of the internet back in the day. Don’t let us slide back into such a hellish time. Please, for the love of god.
Gah I left comment 4 in and didn’t edit it out, 4 is related to my response to 5 anyway.
Nice article.
No one can easily shift from one browser to another. Even i feel difficulties while using browsers like Netscape and IE because i am using Firefox.
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Wow it is very informative and knwledegeable.
I’m sorry but most of those are really stupid arguments. Especially the 6th one: I don’t give a damn about that FF guy, OK? All I need is really good browser. FF is far from good, I’m sorry. It is probably the best we have but still it’s not good. I hope Chrome is gonna be better.
To be perfectly fair – yes, 1st argument makes sense. I don’t say it’s right, but it at least makes sense and is worth further consideration.
Creo que como siempre, nadie piensa en el usuario, queremos standares universales y que se dejen de pelear para conseguir poder y dinero.
Hacer productos como si fueramos idiotas, no somos tanto.!!!
La competencia no siempre beneficia al usuario!!!
Los standares regulados y bien debatidos son los que mejor resultados dan.
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One more reason not to use the new browser that now google will know when and where you are doing Seo.
“Agree with wisher. IE wont suffer FireFox will. Google is making a very selfish decision and I hope they fail in their efforts. The time and money would be better spent in support of webKit or Gecko engines”
Chrome does use the webkit engine.
I’ve been using it today, seems fast, secure, complient and simple. And it is open source.
The only problem I have with it is how it handles Javascript it has a built in VM which (or at least what I understand from the google propaganda) complies the JS code and then runs it on your machine in machine code, which makes for faster exceution but it takes longer to load initially and no JS works until the page has fully loaded :)
I forgot to mention. What the hell is wrong with Google?
I always hear “whaaaaa, google hold all my private data”. This does not concern me for 3 reasons;
– There are laws to prevent your data from being mistreaded
– I have been using google since it first got big, including Gmail. They have never given reason to complain, never sold my data and the apps they make are very high quality.
– I have nothing to hide in the first place.
As for the situation in China, google had 2 choices. Pull out or filter their content. So which do you think is better? Either way the Chinese are gonna end up with their information filtered so at least they can find the information thats avalible easier. Google arn’t that bad guys in the situation the Chinese govornment that are.
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Great post! ;D
re #7: LOL! — that’s what I said to Vint Cerf at a domain name conference in Seattle over 2 years ago (when he was frothing about “domain name guessing” ;).
People need to download Google Chrome like Nazi Germany needed Joseph Goebbels. If you haven’t seen enough Google propaganda (ads) yet, then download the application!
:D nmw
I Broke Google Chrome!
Here’s the beta comment I sent:
“I noticed while it was installing, twice it wanted to access the DNS/RPC server remotely. So I ran this reg script to disable remote access (using XP by the way) and rebooted:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters] “RpcProtocol”=dword:00000004
I accessed 2 or 3 pages before running this script. Worked fine then. After script, broke your browser. I can’t even access Google. Firefox, Safari, Opera, and that dreaded IE still work!
So thanks for teaching me that trick!”
Wonder why they feel the need for remote DNS/RPC server access. The other above mentioned browsers don’t need it. Broke Secunia’s Online Software Inspector also. If I change that part of the registry back to default (dword:00000001) Secunia’s inspector works. Wonder what else I broke.
I uninstalled Chrome, removed all traces of it from my registry and firewall permissions.
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Wow, let’s look at your points, shall we?
1 Is completely absurd. the browser is completely open. Anyone can use any part of it, and the code is available to whoever wants it.
2 Er, ok, you’re paranoid, that’s fine.
3 While the browser is in beta, there is no ad blocking. there is no adblocking in IE1-7 either, and we still don’t know what exactly will be in IE8 since it’s not out. I am quite sure there will be some ad blocking for Chrome.
4 isn’t even a reason, and Opera is not the #4 browser, or even close to #4.
5 You’re behind the times. All browsers are currently working to be as standard compliant as possible. Even IE8.
6 Again, this is not even a reason.
7 In fact, you can chose several search engines for use in Chrome.
All in all, EPIC FAIL. It’s nice to have another browser out there with some weigh behind it pushing innovation. In the end, Firefox and Safari and yes, even IE8 will benefit from more ideas, more competition, and more compliance with standards.
1. I don’t have a problem with Google’s “monopoly”. They consistently do great things and thats all that is important.
2. Google doesn’t know everything that you do.
3. Ads don’t bother me anymore, they are easy to ignore as long as they don’t float across the screen.
4. Chrome runs off of Webkit. Therefore if a website works with Safari it will work with Chrome. And so far that proves true.
5. If your going to say that about IE and Chrome then please include every single web browser out there. But, all of them are starting to get away from that and adobt most of the same standards.
6. Yes they will support them. Because as the web browser improves (no matter whos it is) Google wins and makes more money.
7. Someone will eventually trump Google. It happens all the time in everything. Its just a matter of time. Until then I will continue to enjoy and use Google products.
Now, so you know I’m an avid Firefox user. I love it to death! But Google Chrome does some good things that no other browser does and I’m looking forward to its being around improving all browsers. You people who are Google haters need to get off your high horse and just enjoy the good things out their.
P.S. I’m posted this comment using Chrome. :)
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The majority of your points get blown away once you realize chromes rendering engine is Webkit. As a webdeveloper I love Firefox, but. if it has to take a hit to stomp out the scourge known as IE6 then so be it.
Chrome definitely is the most interesting development on the browser market for the past few years, at least for someone who is not a browser pro. It definitely got some excitement into the game, and it does many things in ways, which might be interesting for others to pay attention to: minimum screen real estate for menus and bars, very basic and simplistic design, the task manager (rocks!), the potential to run some pretty cool stuff if all their references to web-app development are correct, etc. I think it will take market share from Firefox, rather than IE; but I think if FFox will take up this challenge seriously, it will get a development jolt which will allow it, in the end, to have much more compelling features, and take share from IE.
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Use firefox if you want privacy surfing. I always suggest using scroogle for searches (it legally ‘scrapes’ google searches for you and gives your results without retaining your information or filling the page with ads)
There are many valid reasons why people mistrust google. I have nothing to hide in my freezer,but this does not mean I will allow a supermarket to examine my shopping either. Privacy is a right on the internet as much as in your home.
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As for your points, I think you’re wrong.
1. Google is in fact heavily involved in many open source projects. It isn’t just involved in Firefox development. Google very much advocates open source. Google Chrome as it has been said will be completely open source, not partially open source. If they want part of Firefox’s market share they’re obviously wouldn’t make it partially open source.
2. As for privacy, if Google already knows everything because you most likely use one or three of their services what would using their browser give them anything they couldn’t already find out about you? No. Google Chrome could streamline the process, but who cares if they know what OS you’re running or your screen resolution anyway?
3. No doubt Google (basing Chrome partially on Firefox) will implement extensions. They’re not stupid, they will implement a way for people to import Firefox extensions because they know it’s the only way to get Firefox users.
4. Google Chrome is virtually no different to the Apple Safari web browser. In fact, the Webkit engine has less hassles and bugs rendering websites than IE does. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a serious layout bug like I have in IE since forever. You’re stating that Google Chrome is an entirely different browser altogether, this isn’t true. Google Chrome is virtually Apple Safari with better memory management and a new skin.
5. Google are using as it has been stated and it is known Webkit for it’s website rendering. Google aren’t adding any propriety “chrome only” attributes, functions or ways of rendering the UI. If anything, Google will make the race for web standards compliance faster and more vigorous. Microsoft, Opera, Firefox are already working on web standards compliance.
6. Google will continue to support Firefox. Do you really think Google would damage ties with Mozilla when they use part of Firefox itself in Chrome? Because anything Firefox creates Google will be able to use and would be the first to know, and vice-versa.
7. Google will be the default search engine. How is this any different to what Firefox currently has as it’s default engine? And how is this any different to what the Google Toolbar does as well.
This is a pretty un-thought out post. You should have backed up your points a tad better. The browser isn’t even a 0.5 beta yet, come on. It’s completely non feature complete.
Browser-Krieg: Von Chrome und anderen Übergangsmetallen…
Chrome ist da, aber wenn interessiert’s? Immerhin bekommen die User bloß einen umgebrandeten Safari-Browser mit gravierenden Datenschutzproblemen: also besser Finger weg Googles neuestem Tool zur Netzwelt-Eroberung!
……
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yeah, you´re right – it will be a really bad Idea – I support Firefox- it´s better ^^
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oh really nice article, i mean the first nice and sensible article about chrome if you ask me i am also a little bit against chrome reason behind this is they tried to acquire FF they refused and they started making their own browser more like fulfilling their ego, second firefox development level has reached too much its plugins and many other tweaks and working like a charm chrome is new and imo needs more than 365 days to fully compete firefox atm any browser is better than chrome maxthon opera whatever you name it.
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My main question after reading this posting is why would I bother reading any further postings from this blog.
There are some privacy concerns with Chrome, but all of the other points stem mostly from ignorance or poor analysis
google e’ in effetti in testa nella gara per i sosia del grande fratello.
[…] Google Chrome Becomes Top Browser Published September 5, 2008 Uncategorized Hype and naysayers aside, Google Chrome (download here) has been able to obtain over 1% of the market share for web […]
I’m sorry Tad, but unlike your normal posts, I think this post is basically a way to invite arguments, and as such, I’m not responding.
Many of your points prove it: another search engine will not succeed, developers have to test in yet another browser etc.
And let’s not forget that most of the IE 6/7 users haven’t upgraded to Firefox because of reasons which are mostly relevant for Chrome too. So, domination is a far cry.
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I agree with most of your points. I especially agree that it will make it a little more difficult to code to a new browser and to make sure that a site looks good on all of them. For me, it just doesn’t make sense for google to be competing with Firefox because they already donate money to them. Time will tell to see if chrome becomes popular.
The Chrome Browser is completely open source tho.. So potentially people could adapt the browser etc. Google have always been ethical but i defiantly don’t like the idea of Google ads all over the place.
And whether they set out to do that or not, Selling adverts through browsers would be a huge marketing opportunity and they could get tempted.
it’s funny, the more i use Chrome (for windows), the more unstable it seems to get… crashes a lot more, can’t handle sites with flash, hangs every time i close a tab… all that to say, i’m switching back to Firefox
#1 Proprietary, you are not wrong about that. I was just reading where Google have slammed a website for using that Chrome Circle/Sphere thing on their site.
http://www.chromeplugins.org/chrome/google-says-you-cant-use-chrome-stuff/
How crazy is that?
Chrome seems more like spyware to me, they hook people in with the “life is great” vibe.. Until they get your data and start twisting the knife.
The reason #2 is only one does matter. Google is not a simply “yet another browser vendor” or some greedy software corporation. It’s a huge corporation with strong interests to people’s private and business data. I don’t imagine what an angels they should be to not share these data with government structures.
Chrome is good, but it will not beat FF anytime soon due to the lack of Add-ons
I’ll lick the ones that doesn’t stick…If you get my drift.
You should stick to doing SEO and let the developers determine if chrome is a bad idea.
It uses a very popular webkit which is known to be very good at following standards.
1. Totally wrong and FUD. Chromium is under BSD license. Anyone can get the code and do whatever they want.
2. Privacy: heh.
3. Ads: I am pretty sure in a few month there will be a Chromium based browser with flash -ad blocking options.
4. Web Development: Total ignorance. Program for standards. It uses webkit .
5. Web Standards: Uses open source webkit what are you talking about?
6. Firefox: Why not? They extended the deal to 2011 already.
7. Search: Irrelevant. It uses your default search engine not googles.
In general you don’t know what you are talking about. How old are you again?
tomtom:
Are you paid by Google? I rarely see such ignorance! You didn’t even read the article it seems.
Chrome is open source? Wow, you believe every bullshit. The updater is closed source. Microsoft XML is also “open source”. Just because it has an BSD license does not mean it’s NOT proprietary. Firefox is real open source. You can look at the code but I doubt that you will make Google not push Google proprietary crap.
You don’t care about privacy? No? Why then don’t you even tell me who you are, your real name, your URL, where you live and which porn sites you visited just before SEO 2.0?
3: You are pretty sure? Yes? Did you get insider info or what? You might as well start a petition to big Google! I won’t reply to more idiot crap like this.
My 2 cents, it may not even be worth that much:
1) Microsoft is a natural monopoly that occurred due to dominating their market and finally taking it over. They continually abuse their status as a monopoly and break the rules (Sherman antitrust, etc.) but not necessarily because their some kind of bad guy. Google is on their way to becoming a possible monopoly but they aren’t there yet. Incidentally, WebKit is not proprietary and the GUI and code around the edges is proprietary in every browser, some just publish it so you can see it. While I do blame Google for bending to the pressure of the Chinese government, it was they not necessarily Google who imposed restrictions. Come into my house and obey my rules or leave. A billion people is a lot of users…
2) I tend to agree with this point, but I imagine there are lot of people that already did this to some extent. Google is the first one to save everything forever though. Its a huge temptation and I expect them to eventually give in to it. Innovation has risks to the users as well as the innovators (see Microsoft and Intel).
3) Not one shred of fact or publicly known evidence to support this opinion. Hard to argue since opinion is the only thing present.
4) Web developers have to deal with a new release of any browser as if it were a completely new browser, so truthfully I don’t see how this differs from the current webiverse in any way.
5) I totally agree on this point. I already see websites that don’t work on Chrome. This is made much worse by the fact that IE hasn’t bothered with using real web standards at all up to this point. Being the biggest has its advantages. Most sites that don’t work in Chrome also wouldn’t work in FF since they were coded by web developers who were only interested in IE.
6) I actually see the wisdom in doing just that. You see Microsoft has discovered that “doing evil” becomes a matter of side effects of business thinking when you are a monopoly. The easiest way to stop these side effects is to try to not become a monopoly. Competition is healthy and prevents that. Do the execs at Google think this way? I don’t know.
7) This is taught in college at basic levels. Market pressures are nothing new. As long as the entry into the market isn’t barred by unnatural business operations like collusion, or attempting to bar entry by strong-arming then it’s normal and will happen whether you like it or not.
In closing I just want to point out that you should try to support your statements with actual facts more when you write something like this. What you’ve done is create a post that will get you torn apart by those who disagree and they’ll follow your lead. They’ll make wildly accusatory statements without a shred of factual evidence to back them up. Nobody wants a flame war. One last point, its not “idiot crap” just because you don’t agree with it. If you want a discussion you have to expect to talk to those who don’t agree with you, otherwise its a cult not a discussion.
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Google Chrome is a crazy RAM eater. I use Firefox to design sites and IE, Opera to check whether my site is compatible with.
I agree with you that Google’s monopoly over the web is becoming ridiculous. However I think that the release of chrome will not rival firefox. I personally love firefox because of the plugins available to web developers. I would also hope that Google keeps it’s high ethics and doesn’t become like Microsoft
i agree with your some of your points.for me now opera and firefox sounds good,till i didnt experienced about it.thanks
I think your dead on about your seven points, just another way for Google to dominate in every way, but can you blame them?
I agree with you that Google’s growing monopoly over the web is something to be cautious about. I will still continue to use firefox as I was unimpressed with the beta of chrome, and I rely on the plugins I use with ff.
I don’t agree with u guys, I use google chrome and it’s a nice browsers.
FF eats too much memory and everyone knows that IE suck. The best choice is safari and chrome.
Google Chrome is use big RAM resource. I only use chrome to check gmail, if I needed to :D
In my opinion chrome is still better than IE. But for regularly browsing i still use Firefox. I like their add on. It is very useful for my work.
Being a designer, I’m more concerned how my web design appears before rest of the world, rather than the functionality of the browser. The other thing is fire-fox already has plenty of tools added in fire bug to support development. I think Google needs to do a lot more thing for chrome to cover preoccupied market.
well, you actually couldn’t say that Google wanted to go at war with firefox, they have supported it for years and moreover sergy brin said in an interview that they certainly do not intend to outsell Firefox’s market share. Instead they just want to keep the internet open for the next version which ‘others’ cannot actually see now, which will be solely based on Javascript. I think that probably that is why they have worked so hard on their Javascript processing engine!
I do not know about Google Chrome? but after reading your note, I think that the reasons are really sound and rational, think that because of the points mentioned Google will not face a great success with its new product…
Thanks for having time to present these 7 reasons. I am a user, that’s I am not competent in all this details, but I can say this Google Chrome will go into my life.
I use chrome and its really fast. But when to look at the SEO point it’s risky…
Love the image you have source for this post. Totally agree with this. I can’t see it taking off though. There is not much chance that MS will ever bundle with Chrome, Linux distros will probably always bundle FF or Konqueror and Mac will always use Safari or maybe Camino. So, it is unlikely Google will ever be able to get much penetration.
Just a note, no one seems to have pointed out on point 2 (privacy) that Chrome is the only browser to offer an ‘incognito’ window option, which doesn’t record anything you do within it. Damn sight more private than IE/Firefox/Opera/smoke signals.
yeah….so let use firefox!!!!!!!!!!
chrome is better than IE but chrome never beat FF
Very good interesting post i really liked reading it this was new to me as i was doing some research days back and wanted to see how far google chrome is good but still after reading it my few of the concepts are clear but still stuck with few confused..
i respectfully disagree but i think this post was make to create controversy and spark discussion so ill let it slide…
All true, very good points; I read someone said “Incognito” option will provide you “privacy”… this is completely wrong and even laughable; the no historial in your computer option (which is what incognito does) is there in FF too, but it does not mean google don’t get data from you while using it, quite the opposite, it tells google you’re using incognito so google “learns” what kind of stuff you see that you don’t want anyone to know about, just sniff chrome requests for 5 minutes of browsing, you’ll be amazed about how much stuff is sent to google, including a unique ID code that identifies you and what you do, each time you type something in the URL bar it sends at least 3 requests to google server without your knowledge… it’s terrible.
I recommend the use of Free Software, this does not include Firefox but does include many of its forks; I personally use Epiphany browser, Midori and/or Arora.
[…] de 2008 28 comentarios Hoy leyendo mis Feed me encontré con un post llamado “7 Reasons Why Google Chrome, the New Google Browser is a Bad Idea” (7 razones de por qué Google Chrome es una mala idea) que varios blogs han reproducido […]
I think any other than it simple and not-user-friendly interface, else is ok..that’s just my opinion as a regular user :)
haha, this is ridiculous. 7 reasons and none of them are well-grounded why not use g-chrome. again – haha
I think it is the Chinese that are not friendly. They kicked Google out of China. Perhaps this is what the article was saying (but it didn’t read like that). I use Firefox as a choice – it is the best browser out there today. IE still messes me up with such a large market share but poor compatibility with standards (proprietary). Google Chrome 3 (I am way behind but it loads fast and does most things well for testing my website; instability in latest Chrome version). Don’t forget Netscape was once commercial (charged $50 or something like that to use) while Microsoft came along and offered IE for free. I think Chrome is good to push the competition forward. Firefox just has to stay better and people will choose. I think the days of Microsoft pulling the wool over user’s eyes are over – today, it will be known to the masses which browser is best and people can choose. Don’t complain about Chrome being bad; be sure Firefox is better. You lost me with the bundling analogy. You can’t bundle client software with a web service!
How has it turned out for Chrome, though? It became a very popular web browser and has over taken most of the other big players. Many people love Google and they naturally think that a browser made by Google is good. Firefox is pretty much gone and dead, along with IE and Opera.
So I just came across this today due to Stumbleupon but I felt like leaving a comment (even if this is over 2 years old). I personally have enjoyed using Chrome as it does what I want it to do. Before using Chrome I did use Firefox and Firefox worked well for me. However I think that I saw Chrome and just wanted to try out something new and ended up sticking with it. As for Internet Explorer, the only reason I keep it is because it is the only browser that can do certain updates. It might be nice to use if it didn’t come with a half billion pre-installed tool bars that cover up half the screen. Just some of my thoughts on the browsers. As for the information gathering and ad targeting, it seems like everybody is doing that now, especially Facebook. I would be really interested in reading a write up about what Facebook is up to if you have the time to do one or have already done one.
i think it’s time to revisit your feelings. bet you’re using chrome now.
It’s hard to tell how it’s going for Google Chrome but quite a lot of people seem to like using it actually. I remembered the time when Netscape was the one and only browser everyone used and then Microsoft Internet Explorer came along and then Firefox and now Google Chrome.
I see hundreds of websites 7 days a week. YOURS is the first blog that I have seen since a year and a half ago, or more, on my MacPro with Safari 5.1 that displays a long column of white space where I had to scroll down on a 1920 X 1200 screen and keep scrolling to find the beginning of the blog post.
I resized my browser a few times but your blog column still preferred to ride below your Recent Posts and Categories.
7 Reasons why Google Chrome…
you need some help on your CSS
David H: Thank you for your feedback. This CSS issue has been reported by some users over the years but I could never reproduce it. For me the blog displays correctly on all common browsers.
I appreciate the article’s points on Chrome. I wanted to bring up my experience with Firefox and Chrome. I use and test on Firefox, Chrome and IE to ensure my website is good on the major browsers. I’m up to Firefox 7 and Chrome 14. I noticed there is font height truncation introduced in Firefox 7 and when I check my website in Chrome 14 and IE 8, there is no font height truncation.
As a general comment on open source vs proprietary implementations, I find the quality control better in the latter case. I am presently using an open source smartphone app development environment and I must say quality control is lacking, especially when it comes to regression testing from one release to another. For every bug fixed, there are typically other bugs introduced and not caught in system verification before product release (i.e. suggests no system verification regression testing was done).
Well, looks like all your predictions ended up being wrong. Google Chrome turned out to be a pretty good browser that follows web standards, doesn’t have ads, and you can select which search engine you’d like to use.
2012. Indeed. Google Chorme is a shit. I say.
Chrome is a simple piece of junk software. Google is greedy. Firefox owns.
Yeah, I’m Firefox user ;D
Your prophesies have come true! way to see into the future! Google is even more sinister now they do a good job of hiding their tracking because now that they have android and chrome OS they don’t have to try so hard. Soon they will have google fiber and all privacy will be over.
Anyone still reading this post and these comments, try it: don’t ever use google to search. There are other search engines: Duckduckgo (it really respects our privacy), Gigablast (a good one, that has even become open source a while ago) and why not some Bing (yahoo, altervista and a few others seem to just use Google’s results, I read somewhere).
Don’t use Chrome! Ever!! But use Chromium or one of the FREE AND OPEN SOURCE browsers based on it, with better privacy options (instead of NONE, as chrome does).
Always clear your cookies for most sites you visit. We also need to clean the “permanent storage” now, a new “feature” of the web. Plugins?? Disable and don’t use them, as most as you can. Flash ads with hidden settings?? No thanks, for more than 10 years I don’t see them.
Did you know in Russia google is NOT the most popular search engine? Try Yandex! It is very good too. Usually, when searching hard to find things, I search on google in the VERY LAST try, just to compare. And very rarely it has best results – sometimes just different, for very hard to find things, which is sort of logical, natural.
i think it’s time to revisit your feelings. bet you’re using chrome now.
bilal: Nah! I still use Firefox most of the time. I only Chrome for testing websites. I also sometimes use Opera and Brave which are based on Chrome but that’s all.
Why would I let a monopolist corporation track my every single move on the Web? Don’t you care about privacy at all?
Wow, you were right, looking back at this from 2020. I couldn’t even believe when I saw a comment from 2008 on this article.